WASHINGTON, United States: A dozen former officials from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday said they were “deeply concerned” about possible vaccine policy changes after the leaking of a document linking Covid-19 vaccines to children’s deaths.
The warning, published in the respected New England Journal of Medicine, follows the leak days earlier of an internal FDA memo casting doubt on the safety of Covid-19 vaccines and calling for a change to existing procedures.
“We are deeply concerned by sweeping new FDA assertions about vaccine safety and proposals that would undermine a regulatory model designed to ensure that vaccines are safe, effective, and available when the public needs them most,” wrote the 12 doctors, all of whom have previously held senior FDA positions under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
The controversy comes as US President Donald Trump has placed the country’s health policy under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vocal vaccine skeptic who has frequently spread unfounded conspiracy theories about such medication.
The leaked document, signed by current senior FDA official Vinay Prasad, said that Covid-19 vaccines were linked to the deaths of at least 10 children, according to an unpublished internal analysis.
